Summary

At Pro Tour Kaladesh, the metagame in Standard was forming, and there were murmurings of a deck that operated like Modern Tron, running over opponents with multiple copies of a certain recurring 10/10. The power was obvious. When you cast your first Metalwork Colossus, any copies of Sanctum of Ugin that you had in play essentially represented another 10/10. This led to some whacky scenarios where players would have enough converted mana cost on their non-creature artifacts to play a Metalwork Colossus for free, then sacrifice multiple Sanctums, and play more free 10/10’s. The player’s board would go from zero to hero in a matter of moments. However, the strategy would not play a big role in Kaladesh Standard, as there were better options for powerful, linear strategies.

In Aether Revolt Standard, however, the deck may have found new light with a few new cards. The list above comes from Adva on MtGO, who piloted the deck on January 29. So what did the deck gain from Aether Revolt? Firstly, Metallic Rebuke and Fatal Push offer the deck an excellent counter spell and removal spell for the strategy. Secondly, better non-creature artifacts like Servo Schematic and Aethersphere Harvester offer the deck a better Plan B if it’s unable to get a Colossus chain online. Lastly, Tezzeret the Schemer is a good jack-of-all-trades for the deck. It provides reusable removal, additional mana, and a win condition that is not reliant on the deck’s namesake card. I think that the sideboard seems a little off for what the deck is trying to do, but it seems close to optimal.

This deck’s position in the metagame isn’t completely known, but we have some general ideas. Against the Jeskai Copycat decks, which currently seem to be the #1 deck in the format, playing multiple copies of Metalwork Colossus in one turn is a good path to victory. However, if it can’t rely on a powerful Colossus chain, it’s left to defend itself with a conditional removal spell and a non-guaranteed counter spell. Against the B/G decks that are solidly the #2 deck of the format, U/B Colossus presents a type of gameplan that isn’t easily answered by Winding Constrictor or Walking Ballista. Because of this, the matchup as a whole is fairly good. I would not be surprised at all to see this deck put up decent results at Pro Tour Aether Revolt, and we’ll have a much better idea of its place in the metagame after the game’s best players have taken a crack at the format.